EDITORIAL: This week brings you the third edition of the second year of Whewell’s Gazette your weekly #histSTM links list containing all that could be rounded up of the histories of science, technology and medicine from the Internet over the last seven days. Recent years has seen an upsurge in the search for women in #histSTM who can and should function as role models for young women contemplating a career in a STM discipline. Unfortunately this search has produced a disturbing historical side effect. More and more articles appear, especially in the Internet, complaining about how one or other of these women was denied the acknowledgement she had earned for work or even had that acknowledgement stolen by a man. Why should I call this development unfortunate? It is unfortunate because in almost all cases the articles are not based on historical facts but on myths leading to massive distortion of the true story and a complete misrepresentation of what actually took place. Yes, many women have had difficulties getting recognition for their achievements in STM but spreading myths is not the right way to go about correcting the problem. A classic example of this problem is the story of Rosalind Franklin, who was born 25 July 1920, and her involvement in the discovery of the structure of DNA.

Rosalind Elsie FranklinSource: Wikimedia Commons

The standard myth, repeated ad nauseam, is that James Watson was shown an X-ray image of DNA, Photo 51, taken by Franklin without her knowledge or permission and in a moment of epiphany realises that DNA is a double helix. This leads to the claim that it was Franklin and not Watson and Crick who discovered the structure of DNA. The story is completely false although it should be acknowledged that Watson’s book The Double Helix is the origin of this myth. For the true story of what happened you should read Matthew Cobb’s article in the Guardian or for greater detail his book Life’s Great Secret, the review of which is below in the book reviews section. The First chapter is available to read in the Sunday Times (first link under Earth & Life Sciences).

Wiley Post waving to the crowd before taking off to make the first solo flight around the world. As he waved, he said “So long, see you in about six days!” Credit: Still taken from British Pathé newsreel 1933.

Stephenson’s lamp (left) and Davy’s wire gauze lamp (right). On 25 January 1816, Davy reported to the Royal Society that prototypes of his gauze lamp had been tested “in two of the most dangerous mines near Newcastle, with perfect success”. From George Clementson Greenwell, A Practical Treatise on Mine Engineering (1869).